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Travel innovations to come from Asia?

Travel innovations to come from Asia?

According to a panel at
the Web in Travel conference in Singapore, innovation will not take a
backseat in the current economic crunch and will most likely come from
Asia where enthusiastic adoption of new technology and a growing middle
class was creating a fertile environment for innovations in the travel
space.

Citing
the A380 and the Dreamliner, as innovations to drive yields and lower
costs to improve margins, he said, â€œItâ€'s a common trend through
history. Innovation should not take a back seat (during tough times).â€

Speaking
at the Audience with the CEOs panel at WIT-Web In Travel, Holman,
quoting Warren Buffettâ€"â€œWhen everybody is greedy, itâ€'s time to be
fearful and when everybody is fearful, itâ€'s time to be greedyâ€â€"and said
it was a time to be optimistic and there was opportunity when fear is
the ruling emotion.

He refuted the challenge put forth that Asia
was more known for imitation, not innovation. â€œI disagree that Asia is
not an innovation centre. Even though it may not be the original
innovator, look at the aggressive adoption of mobile phones in this
part of the world.

â€œInnovation will come from Asia because of
its lower cost base. We have the opportunity to use some of these
aspects to drive innovation.â€

Ric Leutwyler, President of Utell
Hotels & Resorts, also believes innovation will come from Asia as
markets gain more confidence. â€œIn the past, theyâ€'d say, letâ€'s catch up
with the West. Now, they say, oh no, we donâ€'t have to catch up, letâ€'s
run by them. This is absolutely fabulous. Itâ€'s going to push everyone
around the world and shake everyone up.â€

Chong Phit Lian, CEO of
Jetstar Asia, said it didnâ€'t matter whether it was innovation or
imitation. What mattered was application and thatâ€'s where Asiaâ€'s got it
right. â€œLook at how you have used SMS in this conferenceâ€"you get the
question, you get the answer, itâ€'s a perfect interpretation. It gets
the job done.â€

As for the next big thing their companies were
betting on, Holman cited social networking sitesâ€"â€œthat phenomenon where
peopleâ€'s decisions on travel and locations are influenced real time by
real people commentsâ€.

Robert Bailey, CEO of Abacus
International, picked mobile. He sees mobile devices and the
convergence of Web 2.0 technology as perfect for enhancing the travel
experience â€œgiven that travel is mobile in itselfâ€.

â€œA lot of the mobile devices are coming from Asia and this will help position Asia at the forefront of innovation.â€

Mobile
was also Leutwylerâ€'s choice. â€œThis is such a mobile focused
environment, thereâ€'s greater comnfort level and thatâ€'s going to push
people to invest more in the area.â€

Utell has launched
mobileutell.com where customers can book hotels by mobile. â€œEach hotel
has to choose to convert their information to that channel.
Partnerships are very importantâ€"we are looking for social networking
and online optimization and we are looking for partners who are good at
that, and leverage on that.â€